Composure is a good thing to develop in a lacrosse team, along with stick skills, conditioning, and athletic ability, of course. But since the game is prone to streaks in which one team scores a sudden flurry of goals, it’s crucial to have some resilience and a belief in your system.

The Norwell High girls lacrosse team could have been the poster models for tenacity Monday afternoon at Wellesley College. The Clippers came out a little flat, lost four faceoffs in a row and found themselves in a 3-0 hole with just 4:17 of game time elapsed.

But the way the South Sectional champions responded to that bit of adversity resulted in what every lacrosse player covets – a state championship.

The Clippers’ third in five years, in fact.

Norwell’s reaction to its plight – and its response to a fiery tongue-lashing from coach Kara Connerty during a quick timeout – was to grab control of the game and score an incredible 15 consecutive goals.

Norwell led 11-3 at the half, and was still bedeviling the Sachems eight minutes into the second half. Even when North champion Winchester (20-4-1) began to find their footing again, they could never catch up because Norwell simply kept scoring, en route to a 20-8 final that brought the Clippers their first Division 2 state title since the 2009 and 2010 teams won back-to-back crowns.

“We kept our poise after that 3-0 start, which was really not how we wanted to begin,” said Norwell senior goalkeeper Grace Gunning, who had done her best to keep the Clippers (18-5-1) close. Gunning’s continuing excellence was a big factor in thwarting any Sachems’ comeback hopes, as she turned in a dozen saves, many of the point-blank variety.

“One reason we were able to stay poised is that we work on situations like that in practice,” Gunning explained. “We know streaks like that can happen, so we work on how to turn it around, and we knew what we had to do to get back into it. The draws are so important, and we do a lot of draw drills in practice, too. We know how to win those draws, and that’s where we had to start, but even down by three, we were confident we could turn it around.”

“I think we came out a little nervous,” said senior attack Devon Croke, who netted three goals. “But after that timeout, I think we all knew we could get right back into the game.”

“We made sure everyone from the attack on down was going after those draws,” noted senior attack Maeve Dennigan. “That was the turning point.”

Connerty, who capped her first season in charge (2010) with a 15-10 win over Winchester in the state final, said her team was “hesitant” on the opening draws. She chalked it up to big-game nerves.

Page 2 of 2 - “Winchester is a good program, and we knew we didn’t want to give them any momentum,” she said. “I just used that timeout to remind them that we needed to be more aggressive, and attack relentlessly.”

In fact, Connerty said she wanted her team to be “relentless in every aspect of the game,” and the Clippers certainly were that after the slow start.

Maddie Ward led the way with six goals, and senior captain Mary O’Connell scored four. Devon Croke had her hat trick, Jane O’Connell and Stephanie Croke added two goals each, and Maddie Shea, Dennigan and Lexi Henriques also scored.

“It’s been four years of a work in progress,” Connerty said of her team.

“I was just on the JVs my freshmen year,” Gunning mused about the 2010 state champs, “just another one of the girls in the high school, but naturally we knew what they’d done. Now? I’ve never been happier or more excited.”